If ordinary fire just doesn’t do it for you, why not kick it up a notch by making it into orange fire? It’s easy to make orange flames. Here’s what you do.
- Sprinkle calcium chloride (CaCl2) onto a normal fire.
- Another way to produce orange fire is to dissolve the calcium chloride in rubbing alcohol. You may then soak pine cones or logs with the solution. Allow the material to dry completely before using it as a fire colorant.
About Calcium Chloride
Calcium chloride is sold as a de-icing salt or as a drying agent. The salt technically produces a brick-red flame, but most people consider the appearance of the flame to be a deep orange, especially if it is used in a normal wood fire.
Orange Fire Tips
The key to getting a good orange color is to make certain your fuel and calcium chloride don’t contain sodium chloride (table salt). Sodium compounds add a very bright yellow color to flames. Wood naturally contains a small amount of sodium. The best color comes from using a pure fuel, like methanol or ethanol.
If you want a more reddish-orange color (or need to counteract sodium yellow), you can add a bit of strontium salt to the solution. Strontium is the coloring chemical used in emergency flares, which you can cut open to salvage the compound.